title: How children with facial differences are perceived by non-affected children and adolescents: perceiver effects on stereotypical attitudes.
abstract: Children with a facial difference are presumed to be at risk of social stigmatization. The purposes of this study were twofold: (1) to assess the effect of facial differences on social perceptions by unaffected children and adolescents; and (2) to identify perceiver characteristics that predict stereotypical attitudes toward facial differences. Participants were 344 non-affected children and adolescents, ages 8-17 years. Participants rated digitally altered images of 12 children depicted either with or without a facial difference. Results show that participants attributed less favorable characteristics to children with a facial difference than to those without. Moreover, participants reported less willingness to interact with or befriend a child with a facial difference. Significant predictors of low discriminative attitudes were older participant age and previous contact with someone with a facial difference. Our data call attention to the need for public education programs targeted at reducing negative attitudes toward facial differences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: ornella.masnari@kispi.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Masnari
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schiestl
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weibel
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wuttke
authors.forename: Markus A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Landolt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019465:Craniofacial Abnormalities / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013557:Switzerland
keywords: Adolescents; Attitudes; Children; Disfigurement; Facial difference; Social perception; Stigma